ConcertPulse
Boulez: Le marteau sans maître
Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Pierre Boulez catapulted himself to the forefront of music pioneers in 1955 with his chamber cantata »Le marteau sans maître« (The Hammer Without a Master). Top young talents such as Ema Nikolovska and Sean Shibe, both Elbphilharmonie FAST LANE artists, juxtapose the Boulez with works by the next generation as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival with the motto »Future«: a brand new piece by drummer and Pulitzer Prize winner Tyshawn Sorey (also featured in the Elbphilharmonie’s »Jazz Drums« focus) and »Bel Canto« by Cassandra Miller, which is dedicated to the opera diva Maria Callas. »Le marteau sans maître« is one of Boulez’s most renowned signature works. He took three surrealist poems by the Frenchman René Char from his eponymous collection as the starting point for this composition for alto voice and six instruments. This is not a traditional setting of text to music though. While the verses are sung, they are also interpreted purely instrumentally – resulting in an almost labyrinthine realm of words and sounds that invite the listener in to search and discover.